1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a terminal control system, and more particularly, to a method and a system which allows a user to shift an IP service from a terminal to which the service is currently provided to a user's other terminal, thereby enabling the user to continuously using the IP service without disconnection.
This work was partly supported by the IT R&D program of Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC)/Institute for Information Technology Advancement (IITA) [2006-S-064-02, BcN Network Engineering].
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, terminals using an Internet protocol (IP) service are terminals which can use an Internet service, for example, a personal computer, a personal digital assistant, a lap top computer, a mobile phone, an Internet protocol television (IPTV), and a set top box. These terminals provide users with IP services by using their own functions suitable for corresponding services. It tends to merge or combine functions of different terminals to produce a multifunctional terminal. For example, the multi-functional terminals include a laptop computer which enables a user to enjoy various IP services such as video on demand (VOD) and IPTV, and a mobile phone capable of Internet browsing.
However, even the multi-functional terminals that provide various functions have primary functions and secondary functions. For example, a terminal suitable for a voice-based service is preferably compact and light, like a mobile phone, so that a user can easily carry it, and a terminal suitable for a video service requires a large screen and high performance speakers in consideration of visual effects and sound effects. The satisfaction of the user is proportional to how much a function of the terminal is specialized for the service, and thus the user tends to want a specialized terminal for a particular service, with a better performance than that of a secondary function of a multifunctional terminal. For example, if a user uses an IP service with a mobile phone while on the move, the user might want to keep using the IP service by changing a terminal from the mobile phone to a television with a bigger screen and a clear image quality when there is the television the user can use.
As mentioned above, when a user wants to keep using the same service through a different terminal, conventionally, the current used service is stopped and then the user is required to access to the same service using the new terminal. However, in such the method, a different service session needs to be generated for the newly started service, and thus the continuation of the service is not guaranteed. That is, the conventional method has no difference from a method in which individual terminals use the IP service independently.